THE Home Office has scrapped plans to house 200 asylum-seekers in a “prison-style” camp next to a detention centre — a major victory for local campaigners.

The department confirmed today that it has decided not to proceed with the proposals, which would have seen asylum-seekers “housed” in prefabricated portacabins beside Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire.

The plans, which emerged late last year, prompted a huge backlash from local MPs, councillors and campaigners, who launched legal action against the expansion of the notorious detention centre.

Campaigners had raised fears about asylum-seekers’ wellbeing at the remote site and the traumatising impact of being held on the estate of an immigration jail.

Announcing the decision today, the Home Office said that the camp was intended to be used as “winter contingency planning” but that “it is now clear that we do not need to use the additional capacity at this location at this time.”

Local resident Rosie Newbigging, who launched a judicial review against the Home Office over the plans, said the reversal was a “victory for the community of people, locally and nationally, who believe that people seeking asylum deserve to be treated with dignity and humanity.”

“It just shows that if you fight back, you might just win.”

Local Labour MP Mohammad Yasin said he was relieved by the decision. 

“It was a terrible idea to house a vulnerable group of people in hostile, inappropriate and unsafe accommodation in the middle of a pandemic,” he said. 

“Many thanks to the other MPs, councillors and campaigners who spoke out against this and the other inappropriate sites in Kent and Wales.”

Hundreds of asylum-seekers are still being held in army barracks in Kent and Pembrokeshire while plans to open a new site in Barton Stacey, Hampshire, are still on the cards. 

Following today’s decision, Refugee Action chief executive Stephen Hale said that ministers must now close down the other sites where asylum-seekers are being held in “squalid” conditions. 

He said: “We must accommodate people seeking asylum in habitable homes in our communities where they can access services and start to rebuild their lives.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said today that asylum-seekers arriving from any of the 33 countries on the Covid-19 “red list” will be denied entry and sent back. 

Britain has an obligation under international agreements to grant asylum to people who fear persecution.